#even if it’s annual that is still a lot of money to waste on a streaming platform

[tariah23]

I knew there was gonna be someone jumping on that CR post and going on about how “I’ve done the math and have concluded that $100 isn’t even that bad for an annual service fee-“

[ms-demeanor]

I've been following what's been going on with Belphie the kitten and his person, Greer Stothers, has just mentioned pet insurance in a tag on a post and I wanted to give an example from my life backing up why pet insurance can be a good idea and why I think it is worthwhile.

Two years ago my sister's dog had bloat while she was on vacation. The kennel he was staying at recognized symptoms and called my sister to clear them to take him to the emergency vet. My sister is very financially secure and this dog is an enormous part of her life, so she said yes with barely a moment of hesitation. That ended up being about twelve thousand dollars of emergency surgery.

Large Bastard and I got pet insurance for Tiny Bastard the same week because we realized that if someone had presented that option to us, we would have had no choice but to have Tiny Bastard put down, and we didn't want to be put in that position.

I did a lot of research about different kinds of pet insurance and different levels of coverage and annual maximums and deductibles and so on and so forth. Tiny Bastard is a senior dog, so this was going to be expensive no matter what options we went with, so I chose a moderately priced plan with a $500 annual deductible, unlimited annual coverage, that pays 80% of the bills incurred annually below the maximum. What that means is that we pay the first $500 of care totally out of pocket, after which point we are reimbursed 80% of any vet bills for care covered by the plan.

The first year we had this plan I was kind of iffy about it. It's a noticeable monthly expense and we didn't even spend the deductible in vet bills the first year. Except that a month before the policy was set to renew, Tiny Bastard got diagnosed with diabetes. We now have monthly insulin costs and syringe costs; there are tests she has to have regularly to monitor her overall condition and we need to do more frequent vet visits to track symptoms.

Suddenly the insulin alone means that the insurance is break-even within six months and the additional visits and tests are something we can afford instead of something we'd have to put on credit.

Our plan (through ManyPets) covers medication, surgery, diagnostics, medical equipment, and euthanasia and cremation. It doesn't cover pre-existing conditions, joint conditions for dogs who were signed up over a certain age, dental care, spay/neuter, vaccinations, or prescription food but honestly all of that makes me just kind of wish we'd signed her up earlier - her knee problems *would* be covered if we'd had her signed up as a puppy, and the monthly cost would have been lower if we'd signed her up then. And there are at least a few emergency vet bills that I wouldn't still be paying off on my credit card. Hell, I've probably paid more in interest on some bruising she got in a fight three years ago than I have for this policy as a whole.

I am glad that Greer is able to take care of Belphie. I am glad that my sister was able to take care of her dog. But I'm also really, really glad that for a relatively low cost, I would be able to take care of Tiny Bastard if she were catastrophically injured, or if she needed emergency surgery. I'm glad that I'm able to take care of her now with her medications and her additional vet visits.

There are a lot of people who say that pet insurance isn't worth it, especially not for young animals. But if your young animal gets very sick, or gets badly injured, or eats a hairband and needs an emergency endoscopy, then it will probably be VERY worth it. It's a risk/reward question. You feel like you're wasting money if you're paying for a policy that you never use, but honestly that just means you're lucky to have a healthy pet.

I'm lucky that Tiny Bastard was relatively healthy before I got the insurance; I'm also lucky that she was insured when she was diagnosed with a chronic illness that will need lifelong care. This enables me to provide care for her that would otherwise be financially unmanageable, and that makes the insurance *extremely worth it* from my perspective.

And Belphie is a good example of why it's a good idea to get coverage even for very young pets. Greer is recommending it because this kitten has required a tremendous amount of care during a period in his life when it's generally taken for granted that a cat will be healthy. (And Greer is not stupid for forgoing pet insurance - pet insurance is still a relatively new concept and there are lots of people who are leery of it for a number of good reasons)

So I'd say that if you've got a pet or are getting a pet it is very worthwhile to find a pet insurance plan that fits in your budget. There are a variety of plans out there and some are very inexpensive. Check coverage levels (you can even get some with wellness plans that include dental care and vaccinations) and see if there's something that works for you.

I personally don't think I'm ever going to own another pet without having pet insurance. It's ridiculous how much easier it is for me to say yes to diagnostic tests or different treatments than it was before because I know I'm going to be able to fit Tiny Bastard's care into our budget.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ticketmaster jacks us for billions so it can pocket millions

NEXT WEEKEND (June 7–9), I'm in AMHERST, NEW YORK to keynote the 25th Annual Media Ecology Association Convention and accept the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

Corruption is a system of concentrated gains and diffused costs: cheaters make a lot of money, and their victims each lose a little. The cheater has a much larger pool of money to spend on keeping the scam going, and the victims need to pay again to fight the cheater.

Actually, it's worse. The victim pays once when they are cheated, then, they pay a second time (in time and/or money) when they fight back against the cheater.

But in order to fight back effectively, the victims need to band together – it doesn't make sense for one victim to pony up to counter the cheater, because the cheater stole from a lot of people and can therefore spend far more than the victim lost and still come out ahead.

This is the third time the victim pays: they pay the "collective action" tax of locating other victims, agreeing to a common strategy for fighting back, and then coordinating with all those co-victims to keep the campaign up.

But actually, it's even worse. Because most corruption isn't just dishonest, it's incredibly wasteful. Corruption involves stealing ten dollars from you to make a dime for the cheater. The polluter who gives you cancer rather than cleaning up their industrial process costs you millions in medical bills – and maybe costs your family the lifelong trauma and expense of living with your death. They pocket an infinitesimal fraction of those costs. The rest is just wasted. They're setting your house on fire to spare themselves the cost of a match to light their cigar.

This is yet another way in which the deck is stacked in favor of corruption. A victim of corruption is placed in a condition of precarity and misery from which is it difficult to marshal a counteroffensive. The cheater, meanwhile, is made stronger and more comfortable by their corrupt activities. Immiserated victims must undertake the hard, ongoing work of acting together to be effective against the cheater. The cheater answers only to themself, avoiding the collective action costs that the victims pay every time they seek to act.

All of this is why we have governments. A government is (said to be) a democratically accountable way to meet the concentrated power of the corrupt with the concentrated power of the victims of corruption. Governments are many things, but they are especially a way of solving the collective action problem of enforcing the rules against cheaters. This is partially in service to justice – no one likes to be cheated, and a society of rampant and routine cheating is unstable and prone to collapse.

But it's also a matter of efficiency. While it makes a certain kind of selfish sense for the cheater to liquidate our dollar to make their penny, from a societal perspective, it's a catastrophe. Letting Wall Street slumlords corner regional markets in single family dwellings makes large amounts of money for their investors, but it costs those cities unimaginable amounts in public services as their housing stock decays, homelessness spikes, and schools and public services crumble for want of local taxes.

The paltry sums that Flint's creditors extracted by insisting on switching to a chlorinated water-supply that leeched lead out of the city's water infrastructure are crumbs compared to the vast, lifelong costs of giving an all the children in a city lead poisoning, to say nothing of the costs to the city as a city nor forever tainted by this unspeakably evil crime.

This is why inequality – and its handmaiden, monopoly – is so dangerous. The more concentrated private wealth becomes, the harder it is for the state to police, and the more likely it is that this private wealth will corrupt our officials. We see this all around us – for example, when Supreme Court justices receive lavish gifts from billionaires whom they later rule in favor of:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/06/clarence-thomas/#harlan-crow

Through the neoliberal era – the past forty years of billionaire-friendly Reaganomics – we've seen increasing concentration in wealth, coupled to increasing collusion between the wealthy and the government to protect the corrupt against the public. Think of the IRS's long decay, in which it turned a blind eye to increasingly blatant tax evasion by the ultra-wealthy, while training its fire on working people who fudge a few bucks on their returns:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/13/taxes-are-for-the-little-people/#leona-helmsley-2022

Likewise, think of the governmental obsession with "welfare cheats," no matter what the cost to families who are kicked off food stamps and Medicaid:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/medicaid-enrollment/

All this in the midst of a corporate crime-wave that is not only unpunished, it's utterly unremarked-upon:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/07/solar-panel-for-a-sex-machine/#a-single-proposition

This emphasis on benefits cheating and indifference to corporate crime really highlights the drag that corruption places on a society's efficiency. Even if you believe that there's a lot of welfare fraud (there isn't!), the dollar in "undeserved" food stamps spent by a cheater costs society…a dollar. Meanwhile the dollar that a corporate criminal makes by skimping on workplace safety costs society thousands of dollars to care for the worker who is then maimed on the job.

This is very easy to see in the world of corporate environmental crime. The "social cost of carbon" measures the total cost of pollution: the injuries caused by marinating in fossil fuel extraction, processing and combustion byproducts; as well as the loss of life and property from climate events. These costs are blistering, so high that every MWh of renewable power we bring online saves us $100 in social carbon costs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/30/posiwid/#social-cost-of-carbon

Governments that sleep on corporate crime are objectively governing badly. That's why the antitrust failures of every US presidential administration from Carter to Trump are so damning: they set the stage for later corruption that would not only be carried out on a larger scale than smaller firms could accomplish, but also for those large firms to corrupt the political process.

This is the Ticketmaster story. The superpredator that is today's Ticketmaster is the end-point of a series of ever-more corrupt mergers, waved through by every-more pliable presidential administrations. It was bad enough when Bush I allowed Ticketmaster to gobble up Ticketron in 1990. After all, the company had already proven itself to be a cesspit of corrupt, bullying activity.

The Ticketron acquisition kicked off a two-decade-long corporate crime-spree that produced a mountain of evidence proving Ticketmaster's nature as an inherently corrupt enterprise that acquired power for the purpose of abusing that power, at the expense of creative workers, the public, and the owners of venues:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pearl-jam-taking-on-ticketmaster-67440/

Despite this, the Obama administration waved through an acquisition that was obviously far more dangerous that the Ticketron caper: the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and the concert promoter Live Nation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Nation_Entertainment#History

After a decade and a half of vertical monopoly power – Ticketmaster/Live Nation controlling ticketing, promotion and venues – the company has grown from a dangerous octopus with its tentacles twined around the industry into a kraken that is strangling every kind of live event and everyone who earns a living from them. This has produced an ever-more obvious string of scandals, most notably the company's assault on Swifties:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/20/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-will-eventually-stop/

A combination of mounting public outrage (with Swifties at the vanguard) and the Biden administration's generational enthusiasm for smashing corporate power has led, at last, to a reckoning with the Ticketmaster kraken:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/30/nix-fix-the-tix/#something-must-be-done-there-we-did-something

Ticketmaster is a famously opaque organization. When Rebecca Giblin and I were working on Chokepoint Capitalism, our book on monopoly and creative labor markets, we were able to speak on the record to insiders from every part of the industry, except live performance:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

As soon as we raised Ticketmaster/Live Nation with club owners and other events industry insiders, they'd go pale and quiet and tell us that they didn't feel comfortable staying on the record. TM/LN has a well-deserved mafia-style reputation for savage retaliation against snitches.

With the DOJ Antitrust Division chasing Ticketmaster through the courts, we're starting to get a rare, on-the-record glimpse of TM/LN's operations, as its internal documents find their pay into court records. In response Ticketmaster's spokesliars have embarked on an epic spin campaign, to "contextualize" these damning numbers and paint the company as a weak, low-margin business that has been unfairly set-upon by the bullies at the DOJ.

In his BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller offers a spectacular, must-read breakdown of these documents and the ensuing spin:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/is-ticketmaster-telling-the-truth

Stoller starts with Ticketmaster's insistence that it is barely profitable. Though this is true on paper, the numbers just don't add up. For one thing, anyone who's bought a ticket can see, printed on its face, TM's junk fees: "a 'service fee' without any obvious service [and] a 'convenience fee' that is anything but convenient."

Far more damning is a comparison between the price of a Ticketmaster ticket in the US vs the EU. The EU has legally mandated competitive ticketing, and the tickets there are far cheaper. A US ticket to see Taylor Swift will run you $2,600 – the same ticket costs $340 in the EU. As Stoller writes:

An American could fly to Paris, spend a few nights at a nice hotel, see a Taylor Swift concert, and fly back, for less than it costs to see that same show in the U.S.

How to make sense of this contradiction? How can Ticketmaster show such a low profit margin on its books but somehow end up costing event-goers such an absurd premium?

Start with the fact that Ticketmaster has three businesses, not just one. They sell tickets, but they also promote concerts (that is, front the money for personnel, travel and marketing), and they also own a bunch of the largest and most profitable venues in the country.

This allows them to play a shell-game that's very similar to (and possibly not actually different from) money-laundering, where money is shuffled between entities in order to shield it from creditors, suppliers or tax agents:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/explosive-new-documents-unearthed

But this presents a problem for Ticketmaster. They're a publicly traded company and their investors demand high returns. And unlike performers or venue owners, investors have power over Ticketmaster management. Keeping "margin per ticket" number as low as possible lets Ticketmaster minimize the revenue it has to share with the people who actually do the work and invest the capital in live performances. But for investors, they need to show another number, one that's as high as possible, to keep the investors happy.

That number is "Adjusted Operating Income" or AOI. While gross margins are the difference between the face value of a ticket and the sum remitted to the venue and the performer, AOI factors in all the other revenue TM/LN books from that ticket, like kickbacks. TM/LN's AOI is very healthy: it's 37% on tickets and 61% on promotions.

Those sums delight TM/LN's investors, and they express their joy through lavish executive compensation packages. CEO Michael Rapino is America's fifth-highest paid CEO, at $139m/year (that's eight times the Fortune 500 average). His sidekick Joe Berchtold is America's highest paid CFO, at $54m. The total AOI for TM/LN is $732m/year – and 19% of that is being paid to two of its execs.

But LN/TM has a third line of business: operating venues. The AOI for these venues is just 1.7%. If this were a normal, cutthroat business, you'd expect those same return-focused investors to insist on their handsomely compensated execs selling off that low-margin turkey. But nevertheless, TM/LN keeps those venues on its books.

When those execs talk to the public, they use the poor profit margins of ticketing and the poor AOI on venues to plead poverty: "how can we be a monopoly when we're barely scraping by?"

But when they talk to the investors who decide whether to pay them 800% of the S&P500 average, they are more forthcoming.

Keeping the margins low on tickets – and making up the money with kickbacks and other corrupt payments – means that potential rival ticketing firms can't afford to get into the business. Without the venue and promotion business, those rivals wouldn't be able to command kickbacks. They'd have to subsist on the rock-bottom margins that are competitive with Ticketmaster.

Likewise those venues: ownership of key venues lets Ticketmaster/Live Nation force out credible rivals in important markets, and keep new ones from emerging, because again, they'd have to make a living on that paltry 1.7% AOI (or the even lower profit margins!).

As Joe Berchtold, the highest-paid CFO in America, told an analyst:

I don't think Concerts AOI per fan is a logical way to look at it. I think if you look at how we've talked about our business, we've talked about our business across the multiple pieces. So you have to look at it, what's the concerts plus sponsorship plus ticketing AOI per fan.

Berchtold is paid roughly $26,000/hour. Those words take roughly 25 seconds to utter, so that's a $7.20 explanation, but it contains a wealth of information – it's basically the DoJ's case in a nutshell.

But Stoller points out a curious fact that isn't captured here. Remember when I told you that TM/LN's NOI is $732m/year? What I didn't mention is the company's gross revenue: $16.7 billion.

When TM/LN talks about how shitty their business is, and therefore they can't be a monopoly, this is the trump card. How could a company creaming off a mere $732 million off $16.7 billion in gross revenue be a monopolist with "pricing power"?

This is where understanding corruption helps clarify our understanding and cut through the bullshit. Corruption is vastly wasteful. In order to extract $732m from $16.7b, TM/LN has to engage in a lot of wasteful and corrupt activities. They have to bribe other key players in the system, spend vast fortunes on lobbying, and generally do a lot of unproductive things with their money.

This is concentrated gains and diffuse losses. In order to command the highest salary of any American CFO, Berchtold has to cook up and maintain this process. In order to earn his $139m/year, Rapino has to play mafia don and keep everyone is his supply chain sufficiently terrorized or sufficiently greased to maintain omerta.

These two men take home a fifth of Ticketmaster's net income because they possess a rare and valuable skill. They are able to obfuscate a corrupt arrangement, enrobing it in layers of performative complexity, until the average musician, concertgoer, or lawmaker, can't understand it. Any attempt to unravel it will induce a deadly, soporific confusion. The investment industry term for his is MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over), the weaponization of complexity. A skilled MEGO artist can convince you that the pile of shit they're peddling is so large that there must be a pony under it somewhere.

Here's Stoller, de-MEGOfying the TM/LN story:

Live Nation has a giant capital intensive unprofitable division of putting on concerts, from which it skims for its real cash flow. But this leverage among different subsidiaries means that it has an incentive to push up the cost of concerts overall, not just for its own profit. This incentive operates in two different ways. One, since ticket fees are based on the price of a ticket, Live Nation seeks higher prices for tickets so it can move more cash to its Ticketmaster subsidiary. And two, since Live Nation itself gets rebates by overpaying for venues, it has the incentive to push up the cost of shows. No one can undercut Live Nation, as it’s a monopoly.

You might think that this is a lot of mental energy to expend on understanding live performances. If you're not trying to see Taylor Swift, does any of this matter?

It assuredly does. Understanding how Ticketmaster's shell-game works is critical to understanding the similar shell-games played by many other kinds of monopolists, who have wrapped their tentacles around all the other parts of our lives. As David Dayen and Lindsay Owens write for The American Prospect, the companies that avoided monopoly prosecution by ripping off suppliers have bled those suppliers dry, and now they're coming for their customers:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-03-age-of-recoupment/

From groceries to plane tickets, rent to cab rides, Amazon to Ticketmaster, we are living through the "Age of Recoupment," when the long con of lowering prices to secure monopolies flips enters it final stage: greedflating the shit out of customers, and using the monopolist's power over regulators to avoid consequences.

Today, everywhere consumers turn, whether they are shopping for groceries at the local Kroger or for plane tickets online, they are being gouged. Landlords are quietly utilizing new software to band together and raise rents. Uber has been accused of raising the price of rides when a customer’s phone battery is drained. Ticketmaster layers on additional fees as you move through the process of securing seats to your favorite artist’s upcoming show. Amazon’s secret pricing algorithm, code-named “Project Nessie,” was designed to identify products where it could raise prices, on the expectation that competitors would follow suit. Companies are forcing you into monthly subscriptions for a tube of toothpaste. Banks have crept up the price of credit, so customers who cannot afford price-gouging in their everyday transactions get a second round of price-gouging when they put purchases on credit. Expedia is using demographic and purchase history data to set hotel pricing for an audience of one: you.

When these companies end up in front of angry attorneys general, DOJ lawyers, or an FTC investigation, they'll use the Ticketmaster/Live Nation playbook to try and wriggle off the hook. They'll point to some barely-profitable (or money-losing) part of their business and say, "How could a monopolist possibly be running a business this shitty?"

If the DOJ makes its case against Ticketmaster, it will set a precedent, both in court and in policy circles, for understanding how a monopolist's corruption works. Monopolists aren't always businesses with gigantic margins. Like other criminals, their corruption can produce spectacular wealth and spectacular waste at the same time.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/03/aoi-aoi-oh/#concentrated-gains-vast-diffused-losses

[nahimjustfeelingit-writes]

Holiday fic summaries! These will be OC not Reader

Secret Santa:

You attend a big Christmas party at your friend’s. You were instructed to wear something Christmas inspired and to bring a secret Santa gift for a name you’ve chosen at random before attending. You bring a cocktail kit as a gift to another friend. When gift exchange happens, you get your gift and there is a Christmas card with instructions to open in private. When you open your gift later that evening in a room at your friends, it’s the nastiest, freakiest gift ever!!!! You wonder who could have given you this? There were plenty of men and women at that party. You were instructed to wear your gift all evening but still…you don’t know who it is. Eventually, you find out after an entire evening of sexual torture.

Sitting on Santa’s lap for photos:

You’ve always wanted to take pictures with Santa as a little girl but your mom didn’t feel comfortable letting you sit on a grown man’s lap which is understandable. Now that you’re older, you go to a Christmas event at the Fire House with your sister and nieces and there is a toy drive, Brunch, hot cocoa, and a Santa Clause! He’s a black Santa dressed exactly like the fat jolly man. After some thinking you decide to get a picture with some convincing from your sister. You sit on Santa’s lap and he wraps his arm around your waist, pulling you closer, a deep, laugh causing chills to run down your spine. He asks you what you want for Christmas and you say jokingly: “A MAN! I’m kidding, Santa.” (You weren’t kidding) “honestly, I have everything I could ever want. I just want to spend time with my family.” Little did you know, Santa was going to make that gift come true.

Santa’s naughty list:

He is a brat tamer. And he has his eyes on a woman that’s been crowned the black Regina George. She’s cruel, spoiled, rich, and BRATTY. Her daddy is a successful lawyer and her mom is a brain surgeon. She has everything she wants and will always get what she wants. She doesn’t even have to lift a finger. Men are at her beck and call always. She’s every man’s dream. He remembers how she treated him all those years ago. He wasn’t enough for her apparently. Didn’t make enough money he assumed. Wasn’t on her level. He had it all now. Without her knowledge of who he is, she accepted a date with him on Christmas Eve after talking online for months. She couldn’t wait to see if he was about what he talked. He proved to her that he was exactly what she was looking for, but what she didn’t know was that she’d been on his naughty list for a long time now. He had a treat for her stuck up ass. One she’ll never forget for the rest of her life. The ghost of Christmas past, present, and future.

New Year’s wish:

You make a wish as the clock strikes twelve. “I wish I could wake up next to the perfect man that checks off all my boxes. Even if it’s the first man I ever laid my eyes on tonight. I deserve it after the time I’ve wasted on my ex.” You were drunk and saying anything but the shooting star that zipped across the night sky took it seriously. That morning, you wake up in the most luxurious home, even though you recall falling asleep in your own bed last night after the NYE party. Next to you, there is a man sound asleep. You sit up, confused, looking down at your naked body dripped in diamonds. What the hell? You look over at the man next to you and he’s…damn…he’s gorgeous…wait…is this the guy from the party last night?!!!! You’re in for a ride with his man! A dream come true! Only problem is, you have until midnight to live this fantasy before reality sets in.

NYE office party:

It’s the annual NYE party! All departments at this big corporation: Marketing, Finance, IT, Operations, Development, and the big guys that reside on the top floor all come together to celebrate. It’s a mix crowd, and you show up because there’s always good food and lots of alcohol. You work as an Accountant, been there for five years, and you’re single. You show up in your best attire, and all eyes are obviously on you. You find your work friends and gossip. In walks the boss. You’ve never seen this man but you can’t stand him. He’s controlling, demanding, opinionated, and rude as hell. He’s the new CEO of this successful tech company. One of the highest paid in the world. The old CEO never showed up to these events—hold the hell up!!!! Is that the man you fucked a month ago that you’ve been running away from because of that python between his legs?! He’s your boss?!

New Year’s kiss with a stranger:

It’s NYE 2022. You’re spending your NYE in the hospital. You have a patient that you’ve grown close with. His name is (whoever) and he had a near death experience. He’s a stranger to you but not really. You’ve grown to like him for the past month you’ve been taking care of him. He is recovering well. It was a motorcycle accident. He’s bandaged up and in a contraption to keep him stable with the amount of injuries he has. You’re only doing your travel nursing there and it’s your last day. He didn’t talk much. He mostly used his button or communicated with a blink or a slow nod of his head. He surprised you by calling your name that last night. You come to him, happy that he’s speaking more clearly. Him: “come closer…” you do so, and he whispers, “I’m really going to miss you. Could I please have a New Year’s kiss?” His request threw you off. You laugh, patting his hand gently, “I’m gonna miss you too. I’m sad to leave. I wish I could stay.” Throughout the rest of your shift you can’t help but to think about his request. You couldn’t explain why you felt butterflies in your stomach. You didn’t even know this man outside of being his nurse! Right before you leave, you accept a gift from your nurse supervisor and thank everyone for having you. You’re set to go back home to Chicago for at least two months before another contract in New York. Before you leave, you peek inside of his room and notice he’s sleeping. You check your surroundings and tiptoe over to his bedside. You look at his lips and then on impulse, you lean in and kiss him. It’s soft and gentle. You could feel tears brimming your eyes. You leave with the realization that you’ll never see him again.

[copperbadge]

Do you have any advice on how to get a "charity" to stop sending me mail solicitations? I keep getting mail asking for donations to a Indian School run by Catholics. No idea how I got on their list, but given the history of boarding schools and the Native American people I certainly don't want to giver them money.

The problem is, really, that direct mailings work -- they have something like a 3% return rate but that's still a pretty solid return on investment, so a lot of nonprofits find it worth it to send people mail even when they know they absolutely don't want it. And a lot of nonprofits tend to ignore "do not mail" directives conditionally -- like, they'll "not mail" most of the year but always include the person in annual campaigns, holiday card mailings, etc.

I've written about this before, but it is very difficult to get set up so that you are never, ever, ever mailed by a nonprofit. Having your record completely removed from their database often doesn't even work, because a lot of nonprofits do "list swaps" and if your name is on some other nonprofit's list, you'll go right back into their records the next time they do a swap. So you need to have your record in their system but marked "do not mail ever under any circumstances" and understand that even that will probably be ignored occasionally. Still, you can make the attempt.

So, to start with, the next time you get a donation request, remove the "coupon" part they want you to send back with a payment, write "Please remove me from your mailing list permanently; I do not wish to support your cause" on the coupon, put it in the envelope, and send it. Make sure your name and address are on the coupon somewhere, or write it on there. That envelope will go to someone who works with a database and can mark you "no mail".

If you get mail after that, you'll probably need to call them and ask to speak to someone in data, or in gift processing. Ask to have your record permanently marked "do not mail" and explain that you do not even wish to receive non-solicitation mailings. Politely explain that you do not support their cause and that it is a waste of time for them to solicit you. Make sure that whoever you speak to, you get their name and extension or job title, so that if you receive mail you can tell the next person who you spoke to last time about having it removed. (This tends to signal that you're serious and the added accountability sometimes helps ensure the person really, really marks you no-mail.)

But yeah, into every life a little junk mail must fall. I've been trying to get the local evangelicals to stop sending me mailings with middling success. It's because, unfortunately, direct mail works. :/

[ravioliravioliravioli]

I just heard the fucking news about watcher, unsubscribed,

For anyone who didn't hear the news, Shane and Ryan are completely leaving YouTube and posting their videos on a streaming platform they made for 7$. It really isn't that serious but I needs to be talked about.

Their streaming service is called watchertv.com, starting May 31 all their future works and videos will be seen only on this platform. So now. Why am I telling you about this? The main reason their leaving YouTube is because of, number one, the production value, and number 2, money. I'll be explaining these stuff and why they don't need to leave YouTube just for this. A quick note is that I am just explaining what I heard and understood about in the video so what I might say may or may not be wrong.

Number 1, the production value

What they explained in their video was that they do not know if they can handle the complicated production in the videos (the effects, the angles, the other shit, etc). They don't have enough money to keep making good production in their videos. First and for most, we fans do not care about the production of the videos, when we watched them back in their buzzfeed era, all they had was a black background with text, an office that looked a little like green screen (I'm not sure:p). The production didn't need to be great. I mean you can see that even if the video quality was bad we still watched it anyway since it wasn't the production we were chasing it was Shane and Ryan.

Number 2, not enough money

This makes me cackle since they're past the point where they can say that. You start to earn money on YouTube at least like 1000 subs or more. Shane and Ryan have 2.28m subs on youtube. I'm not sure how much they make on a daily basis but what from what I remember it was like 18$ for every 1000 views. They make more than 1000 views each video, their average a day is like what, 2 million? At least? I'm not sure. But it definitely is a lot at this point.

Okay so now for what I think. I think they shouldn't leave. At all. This decision making is genuinely bullshit, most of their audience cannot afford paying 5.59 dollars annually or monthly. I'm not saying that all of the fans are poor, I'm just saying that we do not have the time to just waste our money on like 28-36 minute video when we can watch it completely free without spending. You are still able to make money without making a stupid website to earn more money. I can barely afford paying for it. They say this is for us when it is GENUINELY NOT FOR US. Why do you have to leave YouTube when you have already such a big fan base from there? Was this really the best decision you guys ever made? It only seems like before when we supported you leaving buzzfeed just for you to end up just like them. So I hope I don't get hate for this since this is just what I heard of and my opinion, feel free to correct me if I said anything wrong or missed out on anything.

So the best decision right now is to unsubscribe until they come back

[luniibelieves]

Speaking Through the Silence: How God Expressed My Feelings to My Mom

Whenever I'm with my mom, I make sure she doesn't have to spend a dime—I take care of my share of the rent for the room I occupy, meals, household necessities and other expenses. Also, if she's facing accumulating bills or debts, I contribute as much as possible to help her stay afloat. Plus, she's got my uncle who takes care of the full rent, and my brother, who assists with her phone bill and car insurance when he can.

Mom: Ugh, I’ve got a ton of bills coming up, but no money to cover them. Me: Where is all your money? Have you been going to the casino again? Mom: *went ballistic* WHAT EYES DID YOU SEE ME GO HUH?! I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO GET TO THE CASINO! Me: Parx Casino would not randomly send mail home with your name on it if you had not visited. Mom: My, my friend took me! And he gave me HIS MONEY to spend! Me: Who can say if he didn't invite you again, or if you'll use your own money after spending his? All I know is that you keep saying you're out of money. What's the reason for that? Mom: THIS CONVERSATION IS OVER! I DONT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT NO MORE!

I was frustrated trying to address how her gambling and financial decisions affect us. Her emotional reactions and interruptions made me drop the topic to avoid conflict.

Later that night, I dreamed I was arguing with her about the same issue. Surprisingly, I spoke Vietnamese fluently in the dream, whereas I struggle with words in reality since she doesn’t understand English. I woke up suddenly, still speaking the words from the dream, which startled me. Overwhelmed with frustration, I began to cry and then prayed:

"Father, I’m unsure how to handle her situation. I’m exhausted from using all my money to cover her debts and bills. My own savings are depleted, and I can’t make progress in life. Talking to her only leads to yelling. But I’m placing it all in Your hands now. I refuse to let it stress me any longer. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

Two days later, I took her to her favorite restaurant, where she knows one of the senior employees. It was a quiet day, so he joined us at our table. While I focused on my meal, he and my mom talked about mutual friends. She shared a lot about various topics, and then, quite suddenly, the conversation turned to someone with a gambling problem!

Him: He has a job, but when payday comes, he spends all his money at the casino and ends up losing everything: his house, his car, and his family. I just can’t understand why people gamble away their hard-earned money. Mom: *quiet* Him: Not only does it ruin their life but also damages their relationships with family, friends, and those around them. Mom: *quiet*

I couldn't believe it when, in that unexpected moment, he voiced almost everything I'd wanted to say about gambling. I struggled to hide my smirk, while thinking to myself, "Yassss! Keep it going, sir!" Lol. It was a moment of silent triumph.

Him: When I have spare funds, I buy inexpensive vacant land, pay minimal annual taxes, and, if I can’t sell it, I plan to pass it down to my children for their benefit. Me: Interesting! It’s a smart strategy—when large companies eventually buy the land for business or development, they often offer more than what you paid. Plus, you’re building generational wealth for your children. I love that! Mom: *quiet*

When I got home, I retreated to my room, filled with joy and gratitude. I offered heartfelt prayers, believing that God had heard me and acted on my behalf. It seemed He moved that man to share a message that echoed my own thoughts and encouraged her to consider investing instead of wasting her resources. While I’m unsure if this will lead to any change or if she’ll heed the advice, it was incredibly comforting to have my unspoken words voiced by another, without the fear of being dismissed. This experience has strengthened my decision to follow God's path more closely, as I’ve felt His profound influence in my life.

1 Peter 5:7

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

God cares deeply for us and is willing to bear our burdens. We are encouraged to cast all our worries and anxieties upon Him, knowing that He is able to handle them and provide us with the strength and comfort we need. It is a beautiful reminder that we do not have to carry the weight of our worries alone; we have a God who is ready to help us.

[ofhouseadama]

Hi! I wanted to ask your opinion as someone who used to live in New Jersey. I'm thinking of moving my family there. We want to get away because we currently live in a red state with horrific anti-LGBT laws, anti-abortion laws, and shamefully loose gun laws. One of the reasons New Jersey caught my eye as a possibility is that I've heard it has some of the strictest gun laws in the US (which is not saying much, but I'll take what I can get), which sounded very appealing to me. What's your opinion on the state? Is it a good place to raise children? Thank you for any advice or insight you can offer.

I lived in NJ the first twenty-three (ish, with college) years of my life, and have been gone long enough to feel comfortable to say that I lived in Middlesex County in Edison, Woodbridge, and Metuchen.

It's a good place to raise children, if you have money. Having now lived in both the north and the south for substantial amounts of time, I think it's hard for people not from the northeast to conceptualize how fucking expensive it is to live there. There's a reason that every other person you talk to in SC or FL are from NY or NJ -- people can't afford the goddamn property taxes. My wife who is from WV was astonished at how much houses cost, even before factoring in everything else. Seeing a 2-2 go for $500k in my hometown made her want to vomit.

But the money does fund the best public education system in the country. (Cue the joke about NJ's biggest export being college students.) When I graduated high school in 2011, I did so with 33 college credits. I had a genuinely good public school education, especially when compared to what I hear from friends and loved ones who weren't incubated in an ugly McMansion off the Jersey Turnpike.

NJ is also a cultural melting pot. Within 90 minutes of entering the state my body obligates me to order Indian food. Your neighbors are from all different countries and regions of the world. You will hear more languages than you knew existed.

As a child in NJ, I never saw, handled, or shot a gun. There's very little gun culture outside of people who go hunting. That's not to say there's not gun violence -- I was in Menlo Park Mall when this murder-suicide occurred in 2007, ten minutes from my house.

There's also still white supremacy. The Klan actively recruits in areas of South Jersey, was openly recruiting when I was in high school. NJ still has active sundown towns. I'd recommend staying closer to Philly or NYC, if the reason you're moving is to flee a red state with restrictive LGBTQIA and abortion laws. The western part of the state is a lot of rural communities and a lot of farm land and a lot of Trump country.

As with moving anywhere, I'd recommend researching where you're moving to very thoroughly.

It's going to be a big culture shock, especially if you're moving from a state that sees small talk as a requisite for politeness. The traffic will be terrible. All the roads have tolls, you have to buy an EZ Pass. Practice your bagel order before you get to the counter. The biggest sin is wasting someone's time.

I love SC, and want to stay and fight for the town where we currently live, which is about to host it's third annual Pride festival. The schools suck, but my wife and I are never going to agree on a working definition of a "good" school because our experiences with public education are wildly disparate. But I can sympathize with you deeply -- I have a trans son, and every time we reach a new election cycle I wince and wonder if my marriage will be undone for political scorekeeping. I don't understand the love affair with guns. I doubt I ever will. But it's worth fighting for, and right now the cost of staying in the fight isn't too high -- there are people we love in SC who are also staying to roll up their sleeves and refusing to budge.

For now.

But NJ is my home. If I could afford to live there, I would move back in a heartbeat.

[inscrutable-shadow]

Mediwhump May Day 8 - Scared of Blood

@mediwhumpmay

Cassiel belongs to @painful-pooch! Based on the fact that I broke my wrist in fifth grade, treated it as a sprain even though it def wasn't (no fracture on the x-ray so guessing it was a hairline) and then developed a ganglion cyst ten years later lol my wrist is still fucked up it's so fun (i went over my self-imposed word count on this one ack) Content Warnings: needles, minor surgical procedure

Another transfer case. The Doctor was considering making it look like they’d retired to avoid these. At this point, it was usually minor outpatient procedures that were incredibly annoying to perform and even though they could charge the insurance their usual “nameless doctor” rate (which was still less than other doctors would have), having to deal with legal processes at all made them want to spend an afternoon performing unsavoury experiments on a corpse. Not that they didn’t always want to do that. 

Between that and the fact that the espresso machine had broken down and they’d been forced to fuel their morning on drive-through coffee, they were already in quite a bad mood when their patient arrived, all shyness and deference and looking out of place, and they couldn’t bring themselves to demur back. 

“Mr Belanger, I presume? Do come in. I do not have all day to waste. The outreach programme has sent you over, no? I do wish that they would not send their excess to me…” “Oh, I can just… I dinnae have to…” Cassiel was slightly shorter than the Doctor, and despite his broad shoulders appeared to shrink back into the doorframe. They identified his accent as Scottish, though pulled at and smoothed over around the edges by proximity to other regions like the Doctor’s own mostly-English, sometimes-Swedish intonation.

They sighed. “My apologies. That was unprofessional of me. Just an annual physical, yes? Please, have a seat. I shall have you in and out in no time.” 

He hesitantly took his seat on the examination table while the Doctor pulled on a fresh pair of gloves. “It’s… you dinnae need money frae me, right?” Yes. He did not appear to be the sort of person who could afford them: his clothes were in tatters and his shoes full of holes. They were used to a clientele with large amounts of ill-gotten gains. 

They raised an eyebrow. “Correct, my compensation is covered by an agreement with the clinic you came from. Verify your name, date of birth, and medical history on that tablet over there, will you?” They rolled over the cart with the medical supplies on it while he did so, frowning and exchanging one tool for another just to kill the time. “Any particular complaints?”

Cassiel watched them warily as they brought their gloved hands up to check his lymph nodes. “Nay, nothin’ I can think of…”

Liar. “Oh? And does it hurt when I do this?” They bent his right wrist forward at a completely reasonable angle, which made him flinch and a spark of vindicated mischief flare in the Doctor’s chest. “That is what I expected. How long have you had the ganglion cyst?”

Cassiel blinked. “The what?”

“Ganglion cyst. A pocket of fluid found on the top or bottom of the wrist. Cause unknown, though they are common for patients who perform repeated wrist motions or have a history of wrist trauma.” They held up the hand, running a gloved finger down the scars on his arm. “You engage in some form of martial arts, no? I assume you fractured your wrist at some point in the past, perhaps a hairline, and you treated it as a sprain. This is quite a lot of fluid, I am sure it hinders your daily activities. How long have you had it?”

“Oh, er… Couple o’ years, I think… Is it dangerous? It does bother me a bit…”

“Not dangerous, no, but if it is impeding your activities, I do recommend aspiration, especially if it is multiple years old and has not gone down. It is a minor outpatient procedure, I could have the whole thing done for you before you leave today.” They rolled over to the supply cabinet to begin withdrawing the materials even before receiving an answer.

The colour had drained out of the man’s face by the time they turned around again. “H-hold on, wait… what’s… aspiration?”

The Doctor was too busy comparing needle gauges and deciding which one would be appropriate to really pay this any mind. “Quite simple, needle goes in, fluid comes out. Local anaesthetic is all that will be necessary. Just take care with the hand in question for a couple of days.”

“It… doesnae have to be a needle, do it? I, er…” Oh. Needle phobia. How annoying.

They tilted their head at him. “Well, I could excise instead. A bit more involved, I would need to use the scalpel, but should still have you in and out in an hour or so.”

He seemed to like that idea even less. “No, ah, it’s… all right, ye can, aspirate or wha’ever it is…”  

“Very good.” They began preparing the implements. “To reduce anxiety during the procedure, you can feel free to talk about whatever you would like. Keep your eyes on the chart on the back wall, yes?” 

The patient was silent for a moment as the Doctor began swabbing the site for the lidocaine injection, but eventually, he took a breath and blurted out, “I thought yer voice didnae match ye, when I walked in.”

“What?” The word came out strangely, as if their voice didn’t know how to behave when attention was called to it.

“Ye didnae seem like a purple person. I can… I see sounds.”

“Ah. Chromesthesia. Continue.”

Cassiel swallowed hard. “Is that… blood?” They tracked his eyes to the barrel of the syringe, which was now drawing up fluid.

“No. I told you to keep your eyes on the wall, did I not? If you stress yourself into syncope, I will not be pleased.”

He shifted uncomfortably, but relaxed after moving his attention. “See? That’s it. I thought ye’d be redder, but yer purple is very blue.” They didn’t really know how to respond to that. “Chromesthesia rarely has any tangible logic behind it, though I have been described as ‘cold’ and ‘rigid’ repeatedly by others in the past. I prefer to think of myself as efficient. There we are, all done. Not so bad, was it?” They’d done the steroid injection without him even noticing, and all that was needed now was the splint.

“That was… fast.”

“Like I said, I am efficient. Now, let us continue with the examination, yes?”

[4dmc]

Just wanna add!

We definitely don't NEED new models! If you absolutely must, get your electronics secondhand!

All these annual releases of phone models or even computers, laptops, etc.

We're over-consuming stuff we don't immediately need!

A lot of "hype" for these items are just psychologically making us think "we're not in touch with the latest fashion of XYZ", when literally these gadgets, electronics, etc. are just made for a delusional status symbol of wealth!

And there's plenty more issues about this! Remember NFTs? Cryptocurrency?

Yeah those greedy tech bros who were trying to make money out of their own fictional currency had overused, bought and fried thousands of microchips and hardware just so their computers could run 24/7! And they hoarded even more computers and stuff just to run their made-up money!

Imagine how much money, electricity, resources were wasted on calculating and running computers for their fictional money to make it into an already unstable economy during the height of the pandemic?

A lot of our hardware doesn't come from nowhere! A lot of our gadgets aren't exactly eco-friendly! And how they're sourced isn't ethical either!

This has been a problem for a very long time! And it's been growing worse since!

And if it took us to finally have 1st hand online accounts of wars recorded in this current generation despite this being the reality for a lot of exploited colonized territories, then I think that's pretty good proof some of these camera phones and the gadgets of Palestinians, Congolese, etc. are pretty durable and they're not even the latest model of iPhone 2250 something!

Your working gadgets are fine!

And use them against these corporations who have exploited millions of lives and natural habitats for minerals that could have been synthesized and produced through scientific innovation, instead of us seeing ugly Tesla cars! They don't even work well off-road!

Also I went on to look for some articles! Apologies most of the sites have donation pop-ups. I tried to find the ones w/out paywalls! Also some of them are a few years ago, but that just means these issues have been going on for so long!

If anything, someone reblog with better sources, that will be highly appreciated!

Quitting Vaping in Solidarity with Congo from ShowTimeCY

The DRC Mining Industry from WilsonCenter.Org

Why Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo Needs Urgent Attention from Council of Foreign Relations

How modern day slavery powers the rechargable battery economy from npr.org

Boycotts List by Ethical consumer (Idk if this is a long exhaustive list BUT it already lists illegal things Israeli companies have been doing!)

And finally, one of the best reasons why we should put a lid on buying new and useless stuff, ESPECIALLY since they're not made to last!

Planned Obsolescence: What is it and how to overcome it from Sierra magazine

(to further hone in all these points below is my ipod nano! Bought back in 2015! In my memory the iPod nano came out 2012-ish! Correct me if I'm wrong! Btw it still works!)

[twaslsmart]

Top 5 Reasons to Upgrade to A Smart Thermostat for Your Home in 2024

Thermostats have evolved into cutting-edge, energy-saving gadgets throughout time. But few questions still arrive if you are thinking about whether to install a thermostat or not.

Suppose, you have a thermostat and your electricity bill is too much. You’re tired of always adjusting the thermostat by hand during the day. Common thermostats are frequently inefficient; therefore, they result in greater expenses and energy waste.

However, smart thermostats include cutting-edge capabilities that lower energy waste and help families save money. Furthermore, they're quite user-friendly and let you manage the temperature of your house from anywhere.

In this blog, we'll discuss the primary justifications for switching and how it might benefit the environment, your home, and your finances.

It’s Time to Install The Best Smart Thermostats

We'll go over a few of the exciting topics that will motivate you to install a contemporary thermostat in your home right now.

1. Reduce Energy Costs with Astute Efficiency

The possibility of saving energy makes switching to a smart thermostat one of the best arguments. In order to increase energy efficiency, modern thermostats are made to recognize your daily routine and automatically change the temperature.

The thermostat may increase the temperature and save energy if the house is unoccupied during business hours. Just before you get home, it may automatically set the temperature to a comfortable level.

These little changes might add up to a significant decrease in your energy costs over time. Installing a smart thermostat has been shown to save annual heating and cooling expenses in a home by 10% to 15%. That means you'll be being paid extra every month!

2. Your Thermostat Is Accessible From A Distance

How often do you go outside without realizing you need to adjust the thermostat?

Therefore, having a smart thermostat solves that issue. Because of their convenient design, these devices enable you to use a smartphone or tablet to adjust the temperature of your house from anywhere at all.

You can simply change your thermostat using an app, whether you're at work, on vacation, or just relaxing in bed. You won't ever have to worry about wasting electricity while you're away thanks to this degree of control, and you can be sure that your house is always the ideal temperature when you return.

Furthermore, a lot of smart thermostats are compatible with automation systems for your home.

3. Boost Comfort with Tailored Timetables

With a smart thermostat, you may adjust temperature schedules to suit your needs because anyone can have different comfort preferences. That's natural! You may set various temperatures for different times of the day or even different days of the week, so your home will always be at its most comfortable when you need it.

It may be a good idea to adjust the temperature to rise gradually in the evening and fall in the morning. You may like to set the temperature to gradually increase before you go to bed and decrease over the night. If the entire family is home in the evenings, you could also program it to keep things warmer during the workday and colder during the weekend.

Therefore, by customizing these settings, you may increase your level of comfort and make sure that your house feels perfect every time you come in the door.

4. Monitor Your Energy Consumption in Real Time

The ability of energy-efficient thermostats to monitor energy use and deliver real-time data is one of its key advantages. It's amazing! An easy-to-use dashboard is included with many versions, allowing you to monitor your energy use and identify areas for efficiency improvement.

You may improve your heating and cooling by making well-informed decisions based on a thorough awareness of your energy habits. You may see that using the air conditioner during a specific period of the day uses a lot of energy. Therefore, you may change your behaviors and further lower your expenditures by using this knowledge.

In order to help you monitor patterns over time and establish new energy-saving objectives, a lot of technology-enabled thermostats also offer monthly energy reports.

5. Diminish Your Carbon Imprint

If you want to reduce the environmental impact of your home, switching to a smart thermostat is a wonderful place to start. Contemporary thermostats maximize the amount of energy used in your house, reducing both your total carbon impact and unnecessary energy consumption.

Your home's energy consumption may be significantly impacted by the setting you choose on your thermostat. Using energy more efficiently can help you save money and contribute to the preservation of natural resources. It can also reduce pollutants.

Furthermore, as many homeowners now place a high value on limiting their negative environmental consequences, this is especially important in the current world.

So, you can live sustainably and feel good about it when you use a smart thermostat.

End Note

A little adjustment that may have a significant effect on your house is switching to smart thermostats. The advantages are numerous and difficult to overlook, including lower energy costs, more comfort in your house, and less carbon impact.

A smart thermostat is significant for modern houses with capabilities like remote administration, real-time energy tracking, and programs that can be customized. Therefore, it's time to take charge of your energy use in 2024 and make the required improvements to your house to make it more intelligent, efficient, and environmentally friendly.

Isn't it about time your house gained some intelligence?Therefore, visit Twasl Smart Technologies if you want to get an advanced thermostat for your house.

[strmpt]

hi this is my semi-annual marvel rant

i still can’t even comprehend why peter parker even had to worry about paying for college. when tony was dying in iron man 2 he was donating a fuckton of his shit and making sure the people he loved were gonna be taken care of (e.g. giving pepper the company and letting rhodey take the mk ii suit) so why the FUCK would he not have a fund set aside for peter to go to school??

like sure he didnt know if the snap was gonna work and he didnt know fuckin thanos was gonna show up but like he had enough forethought to record a goodbye message so like. idk i feel like he would have shit on lock yknow like friday or edith would automatically set that shit up in the case of his untimely death. or HEY IDK PEPPER???? ur tellin me SHE didnt even toss the money at him?!? to go to MIT??? tony’s school?????? fuck off i hate her lowkey

idk i know it’s just like. ugh shitty writing and directing problems but god damn. tony’s characterization was so good in the beginning and it just went to waste. like. ugh. rdj was really the only thing holding the character together by the end bc no matter what he just filled that role so well. well enough that marvel shit their fucking pants to get him back.

like legit im not upset that tony died necessarily bc like. hey yknow he made a sacrifice (proving steve wrong again—but obvs steve proved HIM wrong with the hammer—lemme stop here lmfao that’s a different conversation) and i think that in and of itself is in character for him. ugh idk man

also pepper was bad for tony lowkey and you cant change my mind. she never wanted him as he was, but wanted him to be whatever she wanted. i’m not excusing tony’s behavior and forgetfulness regarding her and others but like. girl. i get having a hero boyfriend has gotta be hard but dont date a superhero if you can’t handle superhero behavior??? he definitely didnt have a whole lot of self-preservation skills but good god like. you can help him get better without wanting to take him away from being iron man yknow

anyway thanks for coming to my rant. if y’all ever want to hear more of my marvel opinions first of all they are buried somewhere on my blog but also u can just ask hehe

[lunarsilkscreen]

Why are Humans having less kids.

No it's not a "Cultural" issue, but if it is; it's the same issue around the world.

Today many dumsdums blame "middle-easterners" for their own sexual pertard.

"of course they want to immigrate!" They say! Blaming them having more kids than they can take of.

Completely ignoring the effects of war that *destroys* wealth and prosperity they may have been held by these people.

Even a first-class-country denizen such as yourself dear reader.

No; when people slow down breeding; And animals do this too--Its because of the availability of resources.

A family-line, a working family line requires resources to sustain; these resources are obviously Time and Money right now..or; the economy.

Most parents don't want to leave their children in a worse off world than they came into. It's part of the reason for the change from "Manifest Destiny" to "Fuck Immigrants".

*cough*DonaldTrump-isonbothsidesofthisinnuendo*cough*

Because most people are worried about the economy and how they *still* haven't found their place in the American Dream, despite seeing immigrant after immigrant after immigrant seemingly coming here to make it big.

They see the establishment as enslaving them and trading the country's prosperity to other countries for favors. Now, a lot of people on the right try to point the blame to the political left. But that's not the whole truth is it?

Many conservatives are upset about a great number of things; cities being designed for tourism benefit the *owners* of those cities instead of the residents who live there. Foreign investment means homes and Business Zones become out of reach for your average citizen. And that's all *without* immigration.

And all that gets mixed up with state and city lines. People might see native born citizen transients looking for work as "Illegal Immigrants" instead of the citizens they are. They then might blame them for "messing up their cities" and coming to "mess up ours in the same way."

Despite *also* being conservative. And leaving those cities *because* they're conservative and got outvoted.

Not only are foreign *internal conflicts* getting mixed in with local *internal conflicts* thanks to "the algorithm" combining keywords; concepts such as "transient" workers are being conflated with "the trans agenda" and immigration.

Back to the issue at hand; less children.

Many *would be* parents want children. Not just trans women, but cis women. They rationally understand; they can't afford children.

And so what it looks like, from a certain world view; is rich people forcing out poor women to either "marry rich" or "leave the gene pool".

Despite some not having kids because of a fear of passing down perceived genetic anomalies (which most people have. That's why we're racist) and many of them being caused by factors out of their control, at the control of the rich (most obvious example; Agent Orange: a chemical agent that made many American soldiers infertile..at much higher rates than Spirinolactone; given to people 30+ for high blood pressure, and trans women.)

In this world; because overabundance lead to wasting resources and a continually over-inflated economy and fake economic growth; many people find themselves below certain level of comfort necessary in which to raise children.

Children are a Luxury in this world; and despite trying to save up for it; many families find themselves unable to.

Especially; since there's already plenty of children that the country has deemed "unaffordable".

So if children are "unaffordable". Is it any surprise the population is quote; "Stagnating"?

And if we maintain annual average birth rate of 2.5 children per couple; doesn't that make up for "ALL THESE QUEER PEOPLE MAKING ALL THE CHILDREN GAY?"

Some of y'all need to do the math, but you decided to stop learning it in 3rd grade.

A.I. can't save you if you don't know what the numbers mean.

[the-rhyme-witch]

If you grew up on Baltrock, there's a few jobs you wanted as a kid. At least, that you wanted in the highlights-only dream recap of stereotypes way that little kids want jobs. You'd either want to copy your parents or elder siblings, glossing their mundane jobs like fisherman or spinner or potter or fletcher with the glamour of hero worship, or you wanted to be a canonman, a wave rider or a mage. I actually wanted to be a dragon but since I was excluded by way of being human, I've grown up and ended up a mage instead.

That wasn't supposed to happen for someone like me. Until recently, there was just four mage colleges. With every fifth kid wanting to be a mage, the colleges could afford to be selective. You could be naturally gifted, precociously bright and so full of potential you near enough sneezed rainbows and you still wouldn't get in. You had to play an instrument, speak several languages, have rescued a selkie from a marriage con...oh, and come from a supportive, conservative family with money.

To be honest, the latter more than anything.

I am not the latter and if I'm being honest, I'm not the former either. I am at best slightly above average. I'm a son of a gun so my mam is away working a lot while Aunt Darnah keeps an eye on us kids (my da isn't dead, as far as I know, but he's dead to me. Well. I say he's dead to me. Loudly. Often.) I'm no daftie but I'm not a mental gymnast. I've a modest amount of natural gift. I'm inexplicably good at doing an impersonation of a seal but that comes up less in college admissions than I'd hope. What I am is lucky.

Some twenty odd years back, Hexenlord Gerolio Swiftness was plain Gez Speedy, with a background so humble that it has self-effacied into myth and with talent so exceptional that he near shook this island. Once he'd bullied a college into accepting him, he dominated the annual mage tournament, graduated out in half the time and disappeared off to fight. He came back to Baltrock and set up the Swiftness Academy For Mages. Unlike the Mage Colleges, the SAM would give a fair admission interview to anyone, with the caveat that you interviewed with the Academy and the Academy only. No other colleges, no apprenticeships, no hedging your bets. The Academy might gamble on you but you'd have to gamble first.

Needless to say, since my childhood aspirations of dragonhood were not possible, when I'd got me some schooling I had nothing to lose. I gambled. And I got lucky. SAM gambled on me. I'm accidentally living someone else's lifelong dream and honestly, it's great.

The Hexenlord Swiftness has not been content to just shake up the island education system. He's switched up the teaching entirely and worked the syllabus from the ground up.

I suppose if I'd spent my life dreaming about incense and rituals and robes with exciting sparkles, I might be a little put out with the SAM method but for me, it's great. I didn't grow up posh, with hundreds of little bits of cutlery, I just transferred food to my face with minimal mess and waste and really, that's what we learn. It's been rough from a social aspect. The college mages look down on us academy kids but to non-mages, a mage is a mage, so all in all, it's a bit isolated and the dating pool can start feeling a bit incestuous, but that's a price and it's one that's affordable.

I won't lie, though. Even a signed-up disciple like me can have doubts. When everyone else is doing something else, it's easy to think you must be doing the wrong thing. So when the colleges (grudgingly, I suspect old Swiftness did some bullying and badgering) announced that the Academy would be allowed to compete in the annual mage tournament, I had some nerves.

The first event is always a melee. No pain, no torment, no death and no permanent is the rules. Other than that, it's college Vs college Vs college Vs college Vs academy. Any spell goes. My class hit the melee first and there was some nerves, I won't lie, but it turned out surprising.

While the college kids were rolling up their shiny sleeves and summoning the darkness and chanting, my classmates had already mopped the floor with them. College kids had had their clothes folded while they still wore them by SAM students. We'd transfigured, charmed, spelled, incanted and cleaned up before they had properly got started. Then Hexenlord Swiftness himself had stepped onto the field, tagged us Academy lot with a nipper spell and transported us back into the academy hall.

There was a lot of confusion. The Hexenlord cracked his hands together. A few stray lighting spikes flickered and we shut up.

"Well," he said, rubbing his hands together, hair sticking up with the static. "That's a war started then, disciples!" And he laughed until tears rolled down his face.

You go to a magical academy where they promote practical and combat magic over the standard hyper complex and over the top spells that are standard and for the first time ever your academy will participate in the imperial academy tournament

[tinyshe]

Garden Report & Frugal Living 24.06.30

I wasn't going to post. With the loss of Bronte, health struggles and the garden not doing well, I thought 'why bother'. I sat with that thought all week ... why bother. When I came to the conclusion I bother because this really isn't about me. Yes, I write about what I am doing, seeing, feeling but the reason for this is to encourage others: go garden, go try, struggle through it! Don't give up! So I'm not giving up this part of the blog (sorry).

I did get out and do my own watering today. Its back to being foggy cold and damp weather (the usual in the land of eternal fog). The weeds are rampant. The fruit trees had three blooming periods this year. I have never seem that. All the trees are long and leggy even though I don't fertilize nor water. The new growth this Spring is over 60cm/2feet. The fruit setting is very light. There was lots of rain during the regular/initial blossoming season. I also haven't seen many bees but the bumble population is strong and more plentiful than years past. Nothing in the garden is growing well. There is no difference between what I seeded and planted earlier in the season and the start I bought over a month ago. Neither are doing well. Its like they are frozen in time. Its warm enough for them to grow but they do so ever so slightly Unlike the damn trees! Its not like I am new to this. The soil is amended, plants tended and nurtured ... and I talk to other gardeners who are suffering the same lot. So I started looking wider, videos on youtube for Ireland, USA, UK, Spain and other European gardeners and many of them that are posting have similar problems Except those that are growing under the cover of poly-tunnel or glass/greenhouse. I wish I had a greenhouse so I could compare myself to myself.

Entering into July and there is still time to replant. Things that are quick growing in the 30-60 day range. I've got to think what I can manage vs what I can buy cheaply (is there such a thing anymore?!). Will I be able to put up the harvest (either homegrown or commercial) for the winter pantry is another concern.

Rethinking this food production/veg patch. This year the caterpillars again arrived and decimated the gooseberries and even the currants that I thought were hidden enough. The wasp that eat these pest arrived late and at the tail-end of this, after the majority of the damage was done. I will try to nurture the bushes back but this year was pretty damn hard on them and there is hardly any fruit and even less leaves. I was in the thought pattern of perennial planting the veg patch and then planting annual veg along the borders but that just doesn't produce enough especially with the downturn in annual plant health. Its like double dipping on the poor end of the spectrum. Do I try to invest money into a small poly tunnel? Do I do both under cover? Do I have enough protection in the back garden for a tunnel? What a mess/damage when pruning the fruit trees? Its like one of those rubik cubes or little slider number travel puzzles. My brain moving slowly through the pro and cons. You know that meme of mathematical equations and that confused woman ... yeah, that's me.

If you have any of your garden observations or have used tunnel growing in cold foggy maritime climate, please chime in. My only experience with poly is starts/propagation of native plants in a production scale for sale and not full cycle, less lone doing a stable veg thngie. Yes, Huw makes it look so lovely and easy. Can his team come over? He can come over too :) We'll have tea.

Frugal Living tip: this may only apply to fellow city dwellers but do-able for others. Instead of paying for green bin for yard/garden waste, you can do a chop and drop or in cases where there is nasty things you don't want re-sprouting (brambles, ivy, etc.) you can get a heavy duty construction grade plastic bag and load it up, tie it shut and set aside. It will eventually compost/degrade where you can load it back into your garden as a side-dressing. There has been some controversy in this as that 1) its plastic! and 2) some have been treated with pesticide (or worse! perfumes) on the inside. This will have to be for you to do more research and decide on your own. We bag and tag, and set aside by the rubbish bins and at some point just return right there where the butterfly bush, fuchsias and climbing roses can benefit.

I hope that wherever this finds you in life that you have many opportunities to enjoy a garden and nature.

Ps: Delightful gardener's reading: The Garden Essential Gertrude Jekyll, intro by Elizabeth Lawrence. This one is c. 2018 by Quiller an imprint of Amberley publishing/ Charles Scribner's Sons

[skinni-girls-eat-books]

Monday, January 1st, 2024!

10:29am We are alive mf's!!! We made it to the new year!

Currently having my semi-annual financial hoopla but things will work themselves out 😇

January goals: not spending money basically.

- don't get so drunk, it is not fun anymore!

- stop buying food/ drinks out! Too much $

- look for free activities

- free hobbies

- be mindful of what you're doing! And not doing!

- wake up earlier and go to bed earlier! (Gradual)

1:01pm I have already caved and have gotten PDQ 🤣 it's all good I'm straight chilling ❤️ Stay positive y'all. Watching A Historia Delas on Hulu, looks pretty good!

3:45pm Ok so PDQ has made me completely lethargic, the salt has made me totally bloated AF like I feel it in my belly and my feet and hands. I want to work on increasing my energy levels this year and omg this was not the right thing to do. I'm so bloated I'm too uncomfortable to nap even. This show is very good though thank god bc I'm clearly not doing much else today.

Also, one of my wall adjacent neighbors has been playing freaking dubstep or something for like 2 hrs straight and I just realized it's making my brain feel weird/ fuzzy but I couldn't identify why tf I felt that way before. There's so much damn noise in the world it's no wonder everyone is losing their mind/ irritable and slightly annoyed all the time.

8:04pm I did my nails! Also binge watching this show was a very good decision, the best I've made all day 🤣 Tried eating some cheese and it's too much!! My body is just rejecting all of this rich af holiday food and I should really clean out the fridge tomorrow and start fresh. I know it's a waste but idc I don't want to keep feeling like crap and I hate expired food. It's not my fault I went on vacation for like 10 days and all this was too much. I'm still not used to buying/ cooking food for one person. I need to stop buying gallons of milk ffs! It's way too much I had to have like 4 cups last night bc it was expiring today. This is just all part of being mindful, everything is a learning process! You are ok and you are doing great! ❤️

Also, learning more and more about how abusive my relationship is and I'm so glad the internet exists because it would have been so easy to just *not* be aware of this experience that i unfortunately share with many people!! Narcissistic abuse is real and I am ready to keep healing!! Can't fool me twice.

I loved talking to his grandmother though, she is so wise and sweet and I love that she really doesn't play his BS and can see through it, amen!!! I can't believe she said what I thought she would say.... She wants them to move out together so that they'll break up already!!!! That shit is crazy she really said that!!! I may be young but I am not stupid and I saw that shit coming from MILES away literally.

9:41pm He keeps randomly texting me and tbh at this point it's so crystal clear what he's doing and it's pathetic. Simply I have no admiration for him, no respect above human decency really, it's just pathetic is the only word for it. He clearly needs psychological help, and I'm not a psychologist! Also, don't you have a gf to text who literally hates me? Get it together, bro, you're not fooling anyone (except her?? Poor girl tbh she's really getting her payback/ karma in spades I'm sure) thanks universe :) love ya.

PS why does he keep bringing up the music thing?? Does he have no other lines I don't really get it. What tf am I supposed to do about that anyway. I listen to all of his music and my music just fine (oh wait it's because I took time to heal and didn't jump into another toxic relationship 7 days later!!) Get a grip, dude, you're not getting anyone's sympathy here.

Made a to do list for tomorrow so we'll see how that goes! Also I'm sleeping naked so we're trying lots of new things!